McKelvey's Archives - Page 2 of 2

West Federal Street during the 1950 Thanksgiving weekend storm (c) The Vindicator, scanned from “A Heritage to Share: The Bicentennial History of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio”.

Christmas shopping season started the day after Thanksgiving when I was growing up in Youngstown. Stores gave their employees Thanksgiving off to rest up for the onslaught of the next month. Beginning with Thanksgiving though, The Vindicator provided a countdown of shopping days until Christmas.

In comments on previous posts people have shared about the arrival of Santa Claus at the Vienna airport, about the Christmas displays at McKelvey’s and Strouss’ and other downtown stores as well as Hills’ toyland. I have to say that I don’t have much memory of this as a child other than driving through downtown Youngstown at night and looking at the lights and display windows and the big Christmas tree at Central Square. We really couldn’t afford to shop at the downtown stores and, as I recall, most Christmas gifts probably came via the Sears catalog or a discount store. My only memory of “sitting on Santa’s lap” was at a Christmas party at our church. What I remember more from that party was the stocking each of us received full of candies and small toys. That was fun!

I do remember that as a paper boy, newspapers were much heavier during Christmas season with all the ads. The Thanksgiving paper was full of them and especially every Wednesday and Sunday. I often had to use a wagon for delivering papers on those days because they were too bulky and heavy to fit into my newspaper sack. I often wondered how the city could possibly buy all the stuff advertised!

McKelvey’s logo

Later on, I worked as a stock-boy and then as a customer service rep at McKelvey’s (later Higbee’s). This gave me a chance to see Christmas from the inside of a department store. I worked in Layaway and this was the time of the year we’d get inundated. On the Friday after Thanksgiving we’d get inundated with packages that I had to store on a honeycomb of shelves. People would pay for these “on time” with a small layaway fee (I think the highest it was while I worked there was $1.50). This was a good alternative to credit for many who were still suspicious of credit cards but wanted to make sure they could get the item. We’d have a second busy wave the week before Christmas as people would come in to pay off their items. What was least fun about this job was “returns”, the items people failed to claim or got refunds on because the didn’t want them. Department clerks always hated seeing me bringing packages back to them because it meant a loss against their sales.

Our area of the store was also where clerks would turn in sales receipts and figures at the end of each day. Our supervisor was charged with compiling these and we could often tell by the expression on his face as to whether it had been a good day–and every day counted. Later, I got to work “out front” in customer service, which was not particularly enjoyable as we dealt with complaints about deliveries or had to deal with people who were over their credit lines. Mostly, you let people vent, did what you could, kept smiling and didn’t take their guff personally! What was fun was that a number of women who worked in the department loved to bake and more or less had a bake-off with each other–you know all those good Youngstown Christmas cookies. We had our own stash!

What I did learn through all of this was how hard, and at relatively low wages everyone worked. I was amazed at the artistry of some of our display people (some were art students at YSU). There were all the people working in the stockrooms to ticket and put out merchandise. There were all those clerks who spent hours on their feet assisting customers. And there was our store Santa, who you could tell was pretty tuckered out at the end of the day listening to all those squirming kids and “ho-ho-hoing!” and posing with hundreds of those kids for that snapshot that would make Christmas memories.

What all this gave me was an abiding appreciation for those who work in stores, and especially for those who serve with cheerfulness. It is not easy work, especially at Christmas. I don’t want to be one of those customers who is memorable for all the wrong reasons that people talk about in the employee cafeteria or the break room!

What are your Christmas shopping memories? Did you have any seasonal jobs at Christmas, and if so, what was memorable from those?

Growing up in the 50’s and early 60’s in Youngstown, going downtown was a big deal. You dressed up. I remember going downtown with my grandmother and having to get out of summer play clothes and dressing up in my Sunday clothes. My wife, who also grew up in Youngstown, remembers this as well–in her case, the girls even wore white gloves. By the mid-1960s, things probably started loosening up, which is also about the time that the bustling downtown of my childhood began dying. More on this later.

Home Savings and Loan

We lived on the west side of the city, off of Mahoning Ave where there is a bit of a hill. I could look out the back window of my bedroom and see downtown, parts of the mills, and the north side of the city, where St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (now Medical Center) is located. What stood out on the skyline was the Home Savings and Loan bank tower, which was lit at night. It is so iconic that the bank still uses this in their logo.

Strouss’ Logo from the 60s

Shopping in downtown Youngstown seemed a bit of a magical experience, whether it was going to get a malted shake at Strouss’, one of the big department stores along West Federal Street, or looking out on all the shoppers from the Mezzanine level. I went through a phase where I collected stamps, and one of the best places in the 60s to get stamps in Youngstown was the Mezzanine level stamp counter, so it was kind of a “twofer” for me. Strouss’ eventually built satellite stores in the shopping strips and malls that sprang up in the late 60s. Later on, they were bought out by the May Company.

McKelvey’s logo

The other big department store was G.M. McKelvey’s, which always had incredible Christmas displays, the “Hall of Music” where you could take your kids for music lessons, and a grille on the first floor that my father managed for a time. My first (and only) experience of punching in and out on a time clock came when I worked as a stock clerk through high school and college. My wages (and some scholarships) paid my way through college, as it did for a number of friends I made there, most of us students at Youngstown State. Eventually, Higbee’s in Cleveland bought them out, and then closed down the store in 1979. The building, which was actually a maze of several building when you explored all the stock rooms in the place, was eventually torn down

Of course, there were a number of smaller businesses and several theatres there at the time. The first movie I ever saw (I think) was “Babes in Toyland” in the State Theatre. The Warner Theatre was eventually turned into Powers Auditorium, the home of the Youngstown Symphony. As rock ‘n roll took off, the Record Rendezvous was the place to get your latest hits. You shopped for shoes at Lustigs. There was a Woolworth’s and Kresges with soda fountains. Many doctors and lawyers had offices in Central Tower on the square. My orthodontist was there-not such a happy memory! Nor was registering for the draft in the Selective Service offices which I believe were in the main post office building.

St. Columba’s Cathedral still presides over downtown Youngstown from a hill just north of the downtown. The Cathedral burnt down in 1954 and was rebuilt on the same site. A number of other church buildings also were located in or near downtown including First Presbyterian Church, St John’s Episcopal, and my own church, then known as Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, at Wood and Walnut Streets. In the 1960s the church relocated to a west suburb.

And that tells the tale of what happened to downtown Youngstown as so many other downtowns. Suburban communities grew up around the city as the more affluent moved out. More retail shopping occurred in strip plazas and the two shopping malls eventually built in the area. As people moved from foot and bus transportation to the automobile, bus service to the downtown dwindled. And when the steel mills closed in 1978, the stores soon followed.

In more recent years, the city has torn down dilapidated buildings. Government offices occupy the old McKelvey building space. Restaurants have opened and cater to the crowds attending events at the Covelli Centre. A “business incubator” occupies the old Strouss’ building. Youngstown hangs on and is trying to reinvent itself.

In working class Youngstown, I think the downtown we grew up with represented the finer things in life one strove for in one’s work. It reminded you that there were times and places that were special–holiday displays and trees on the square, or going to the bank to get a loan to improve your house. You minded your manners, you dressed up, and you anticipated a trip downtown as something special. What was amazing was that things that special could be found not just in a few places like New York or Chicago, but even in working class Youngstown.